A Brooklyn woman reportedly filed a $1.25 million claim with the New York City Comptroller’s Office, alleging that NYPD officers ignored threats to her safety when she was surrounded and assaulted by a mob of Orthodox Jewish men and boys after a protest in the spring.
According to the Comptroller’s Office, the claim is a procedural step that serves as notice to the city that the woman intends to sue and is required before filing a lawsuit against the city.
Viral video of the incident shows one NYPD officer escorting the woman to the safety of a police car as dozens of men and boys throw objects at her, kick her, and shout insults at her, including threats of sexual assault.
The woman told Gothamist that she “just ran for my life toward that car.”
“As I was running, these men were yelling ‘get her!’ and cheering,” she said.
Leo Glickman, the woman’s attorney, requested that her name be concealed in public filings and the outlet granted his request for anonymity due to safety concerns.
The incident reportedly took place in April outside the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. A small group of people had gathered to protest the appearance of Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, with video showing scores of counter protesters confronting the anti-Israel demonstrators.
According to Gothamist, the woman’s claim stated she was not at the scene as a protester. She said she was there to investigate after hearing a helicopter hovering over her apartment, which is nearby. The mob surrounded her after they mistook her for a protester, she said, and she pulled a scarf over her face to conceal her identity when members of the crowd began filming her.
The NYPD’s actions that night are indicative of “disparate treatment of protesters in New York City based on their point of view,” the claim alleges.
Glickman told Gothamist he believes that city leadership and the NYPD are biased against pro-Palestinian protesters.
The woman was not there to protest, the claim said, but the officers perceived that she was sympathetic to the anti-Israel side and failed to take appropriate action to protect her from being accosted.
Glickman said the actions of the officers at the scene implied that they approved of the crowd’s treatment of his client.
“A police officer standing there while someone is getting assaulted and if the police officer doesn’t try to arrest that person or do something to stop it, what essentially the police officer is saying is: ‘Go ahead, you’re allowed to assault this person,'” he told Gothamist.
He added that a detective from the Internal Affairs Bureau has contacted the woman.
A detective from the NYPD hate crimes division has also reached out multiple times, the woman said, but no arrests have been made in the case.
Rabbi Motti Seligson, a spokesman for Chabad Lubavitch, condemned the actions of both the Orthodox group of men and boys and the anti-Israel protesters in a statement obtained by Gothamist.
“We condemn the crude language and violence of the small breakaway group of young people; such actions are entirely unacceptable and wholly antithetical to the Torah’s values,” Seligson said. “The fact that a possibly uninvolved bystander got pulled into the melee further underscores the point.”
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